Hill Auditorium, one of Albert Kahn's buildings on the University of Michigan's campus.

Michael Hodges

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Stateside’s conversation with Michael Hodges, fine arts writer for the Detroit News, and author of the new book, “Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit.”

The Detroit skyline and the University of Michigan would not be the same if it weren’t for the work of one of Detroit’s most famous architects, Albert Kahn. Kahn also played a large role in the development of the Soviet Union in the early twentieth century.

Stateside’s conversation with Tiffany Brown, an architectural designer who won a 2017 Knights Arts Challenge grant for her project, 400 Forward.

There’s so much renovation and new development happening in Detroit. But how many of the people designing these spaces are the people who will end up using them?

That’s the question that drives Tiffany Brown.

She is an architectural designer who won a 2017 Knight Arts Challenge grant for her idea to bring more black girls and women into the field of architecture and urban planning. Her winning project is called 400 Forward.

Michigan has its fair share of magnificent architects, one of whom is Minoru Yamasaki.

Author John Gallagher recently wrote a book about Yamasaki. He joined us today on Stateside.

Yamasaki lived during World War II, when life for many Japanese Americans was not easy. Some suffered in internment camps, and Yamasaki too faced discrimination.

“And yet he was so good at what he did and so brilliant that he got these sort of high-end commissions, you know, from early on designing a naval base for the military at the height of World War II,” Gallagher said.

After the war, Yamasaki moved to Detroit. Gallagher said he quickly became “the new modernist designer” in the city and its suburbs. He is known for buildings like the McGregor Memorial Conference Center at Wayne State and the One Woodward building.

Gallagher said Yamasaki's buildings feel connected to nature.

“Whenever you’re in one of them you begin to sense what he was trying to do, creating these oasis of tranquility for the people who would use his buildings,” he said.